With the sun setting past teatime on a baking Wimbledon day, and the shade gradually emerging across the court, Britain’s top singles player entered the arena in a primetime slot. Burberry models and social media influencers posed and pouted courtside, eager to show off their prized viewing spot. Only 23 years young, Jack Draper had better get used to this.
Yet as first rounds at Wimbledon go, this was as comfortable as they come. Frankly, Draper could play on this stage for another decade and won’t have an easier match at the All England Club. While world No 4 Alexander Zverev crashed out 200 metres south of the grounds on Centre Court – the 12th men’s seed to be eliminated in the first round here – Draper’s mission against Sebastian Baez on Court 1 was simple: total destruction.
So much so that he forced his opponent into submission. A scoreline of supremacy read 6-2, 6-2, 2-1 (ret), with the Argentinean retiring due to a knee injury. With a bit of luck, Draper was back home in Putney in time for Tuesday night’s highlights show. Seventy-four minutes and done. Mission accomplished.
The quick duration is not insignificant. At Grand Slams, playing best-of-five sets every other day, any chance of respite should gratefully be grasped. Draper’s conditioning has deserted him before, not least when he vomited on court in the US Open semi-finals last summer. But this is the new and improved Draper: a well-oiled powerhouse and physical specimen. Here, he was keen not to waste anyone’s time.
Although that was not the party line. “I wanted to play a bit longer, in all honesty,” he said, with a smirk, on-court afterwards. “I was getting my tennis together a bit. It’s no way to win like that, I wish Sebastian the best of recoveries.”
Now the world No 4, Draper’s rise from 28 in the world one year ago has been meteoric. With his run to the final four in New York and an illustrious title at Indian Wells behind him, the 23-year-old not only believes effusively in his hard graft and ability. Now, he has the results and the ranking to back it up.
What’s next? A tougher test, in the form of 2017 finalist Marin Cilic, in the second round on Thursday. Draper has not actually progressed to the third round at SW19 before; a record he’ll be desperate to extinguish, with the weight of expectation around him now expecting at least a quarter-final. In this brief opening glimpse, it’s hard to argue against the notion he’ll have too much firepower for 36-year-old Cilic.
Injured or not, Baez was never going to threaten the Briton today. By ranking, there were only five players who could’ve posed a tougher test for Draper in the opening two rounds. But the reality is that the world No 38 was on a five-match losing streak and had not won on a grass court in over two years.
Truth be told, there are clay court specialists, and then there’s Sebastian Baez. The Argentine is only a year older than Draper but actually has four more ATP tour titles to his name. However, six of those seven have come on the red dust; a surface Baez makes his unequivocal priority every season. In fact, this contest was his first match with pristine green under his shoes this year. Early on, you could tell.
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Draper broke in the first game of the match, dictating and dominating with his humdinger of a forehand: a shot so powerful it can go radically astray in moments of tension, it is the Brit’s biggest weapon when it’s on song. Coupled with his whipped lefty serve, it makes for a handy one-two on the low-trajectory Wimbledon grass. Another break soon followed, signs of Baez’s imminent surrender incoming.
Having lost the opening set, Baez experienced a sudden slip changing direction, another sign of a player unaccustomed to the nuances of grass-court movement. Draper pounced quickly on his prey, immediately hitting a drop-shot to perfection. Beyond his imposing muscularity, the Brit’s improved matchplay instincts are also worthy of merit in explaining his impressive last 12 months.
He broke again to start the second, while Baez saw a group of medical staff who tended to his right knee. The Argentine opted to continue but was powerless to halt Draper’s assault. The British No 1 went a double break up with a sparkling forehand crosscourt on the run, to the roar of 10,000 in Wimbledon’s second biggest court. After an hour, Draper was a set from home.
A quick break to love saw Draper lead 2-1 in the third set when Baez called it a day, due to a right knee injury. In sum, Draper lost four points against his serve all evening, becoming the seventh British man through to round two.
And with big-serving dark horse Alexander Bublik, a potential third-round opponent, surprisingly exiting earlier on Tuesday, Draper’s route to the second week looks a bit more rosy than 24 hours ago. For this to be the biggest fortnight of his life, things have to fall into place. Perhaps these are early, hopeful omens.
Nightmare draw, you say? Not yet, that’s for sure.
